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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25091236">The Point of No Return</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anastaezja/pseuds/Anastaezja'>Anastaezja</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Picking Up the Pieces [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Order (TV 2019)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Canon-Compliant, Demon Realm, Demons, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gabrielle getting emotional, Lilith hell experience explained, Multi, Werewolves, season 2 episode 10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 05:09:06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,980</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25091236</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anastaezja/pseuds/Anastaezja</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Why does Lilith want to go back to "hell"? What was the demon realm like? How did Midnight manage to get away and kill Alyssa?<br/>My take on what could've happened at the end of the last episode of season 2, and shortly after. Focused on Lilith, mostly.</p><p>The 1st part of  'Picking Up the Pieces' series.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Lilith Bathory/Nicole Birch, Lilith Bathory/Randall Carpio, Randall Carpio/Gabrielle Dupres</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Picking Up the Pieces [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1817236</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>28</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hi Guys!<br/>This is the first part of a series: 'Picking Up the Pieces'.<br/>The second part has been already published, the title is 'Superwoman'.<br/>It doesn't really matter which part you read first, because each of them tells a story of different characters. So in 'Superwoman' you have Vera and Hamish, and here you can find out what happened to Lilith, Randall, Nicole and Gabrielle at the end of the last episode of season 2. (Or, technically, what could've happened - I can only guess, obviously).<br/>The third part (coming soon!), 'The War of The Roses', will be a multi-chapter continuation based on these two short fics, so I recommend reading them both before you start 'The War of the Roses'.<br/>Enjoy! xoxo</p><p>___<br/>I'm not a native speaker and I'm too impatient to wait for my beta to edit all this stuff, so if you find any mistakes, I'm sorry!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>
    <em>Past the point of no return, the final threshold<br/>
The bridge is crossed, so stand and watch it burn<br/>
We've passed the point of no return…</em>
  </p>
</blockquote><p>‘Phantom of the Opera’<em>, The Point of No Return</em></p><p>
  
</p><p><em>“Home? This isn’t my home. You took me from my home. And you need to send me back!” </em>said Lilith and Nicole felt her mouth fall open.</p><p>“What are you talking about, Lil?” she asked weakly.</p><p>“I don’t belong here. And I need to come back where I’m supposed to be before it’s too late.”</p><p>“Um… How about we talk about it with the rest?” suggested Nicole and Lilith just shrugged. “Just make it fast”, she said. That was bad. That was really, really bad. “Guys?” called the afro girl, but no one responded, so she peeked outside. The view startled her. The only one to be seen was Randall, who was naked and covered in blood. The blood was apparently his own, because he was staggering hard while trying to put his pants back on. “Randall? What’s happened?” she cried out, and rushed to help him. “You’re hurt!” she looked at a nasty cut running through his chest and upper arm.</p><p>“It’s nothing”, he panted. “It’ll heal in a minute”.</p><p>“No, let me help you…”</p><p>“He’s right”, they heard a voice from behind. “Don’t bother. Werewolves can quickly recover from any injury, apart from ones created with an enchanted weapon.”</p><p>“See?” shrugged Randall, massaging his already healing arm. “You could show some sympathy, though”, he added, turning his eyes to Lilith and grinning. “After all, I’ve just been through hell to rescue you.”</p><p>“It’s not hell, its…”</p><p>“…<em>trans dimensional plane</em>, I know, I know. But until you come up with a nice shortcut for this unbelievably long name, I’ll keep saying ‘hell’. And again, I was talking about the experience.”</p><p>“Well, you shouldn’t have done that. I need to get back there anyway.”</p><p>“What?” Randall turned to look at Nicole, searching for an explanation, but all she could do was shrug helplessly. “What the <em>hell</em>…?!”</p><p>“We’ll talk about that in a second, but first please tell me, how did you get hurt and where are the others?” she interrupted.</p><p>“Right…” Randall rubbed his forehead. “So, Jack realised that Midnight agreed to our plan only because it would put Vera and Alyssa in the same room, and that way he would be able to kill them both. So Jack knocked out Gabrielle and ran to the temple. Obviously, it didn’t take long for Gabrielle-Midnight to wake up. And when she did, Hamish tried to ‘<em>Dormio</em>’ her, but she bounced the spell back at him and wolfed out. I transformed too and tried to stop her, but she was fighting like crazy and since I didn’t want to kill her and didn’t want to get killed either, I had to let her go eventually… She was gone already when Hamish woke up, and as soon as he did, he rushed to the temple himself.”</p><p>“Oh God…” whispered Nicole.</p><p>“Yeah…” Randall was staring absently at the grass, lost in thoughts, and all three of them were silent for a minute. “So, you were saying, Lilith?” he looked up at his friend, frowning.</p><p>“I was saying that you need to send me back, and you need to do it fast”, she repeated like a broken record.</p><p>“But why?”</p><p>“Because I do not belong here anymore.”</p><p>“Rubbish! How can it be? You were born here, you’re a human, you’re our friend!”</p><p>“I’m no longer a human.”</p><p>“Then who are you?” asked Nicole, not really wanting to know the answer.</p><p>“A demon?” suggested Randall.</p><p>Lilith shook her head.</p><p>“I’m neither. Not yet. I’m… somewhere in between. I’m transforming. I’m <em>becoming</em> a demon.”</p><p>“But if the transformation is not finished yet, we may be able to bring you back!” exclaimed Nicole enthusiastically, but Lilith only shook her head again.</p><p>“No, you can’t do that. Once the transformation is started, it’s started. You can’t reverse it. Just like you can’t reverse puberty or aging. It’s a one-way road. The only thing I can do now is complete it. And to achieve that, I must come back to the demon realm! If I stay here for too long, then I… then I…” her voice cracked and she started shivering again.</p><p>Randall came closer to her and touched her arm reassuringly.</p><p>“Then you what, Lil?” he asked softly.</p><p>“Then I’ll be sent to a plane where all the broken beings are sent to… I’ll be sent to Tartarus” she whispered, unmistakeable terror in her dark eyes. Randall and Nicole exchanged apprehensive glances.</p><p>“But we don’t even know how to send you back… The portal is closed”, said Nicole. “How… how much time do you have?”</p><p>“I’m not sure. The time flows completely differently up there.”</p><p>“<em>Up</em> there, huh? Come on, Lil, you behave like all those folks who go to work to a different country for two months and when they come back they pretend they forgot how to speak English”, bridled Randall.</p><p>Lilith gave him an angry stare.</p><p>“Fine, whatever. It’s not really <em>up</em> there, but it’s not <em>down</em> there either. I don’t know how to describe it in human terms. Anyway, as I was saying, the time flows in a different way there.  It's much faster here, on Earth. f So if I had, let’s say, a month to complete my transformation in the demon realm, here it would be… one day, I guess.”</p><p>“Oh. And when should your transformation be over, according to the demon realm’s timeline?” asked Nicole, already afraid of the answer.</p><p>“In about three months, I think.”</p><p>“So… it means three days here, right?”</p><p>“Maximum. If I’m right. And I really wouldn’t like to risk being wrong about it.”</p><p>“And… what did you mean when you said you’ll be send to the Tartarus if you don’t get back to the demon realm on time?”</p><p>“Every being has a form, a shape. It can be changed; people change from children into adults; from alive to dead. Not every transformation is connected to such an extreme change like dying. If you become a teenager, you’re still human, even if you’re not a child anymore but also not an adult yet. But if you get stuck between the living and the dead… it gets nasty. You don’t belong to any of these worlds; you’re incomplete. And if you stay in that state for too long, you’ll be thrown into the Tartarus. It’s a plane where all the broken beings go… All those beings who are not good enough, not defined enough to exist in any other realm. It’s a home for all sorts of lost souls and all kinds of the most awful abominations, the most horrifying mistakes. Also, the worst demons are imprisoned there – the ones that broke the rules of the trans-dimensional alliance.”</p><p>Both Nicole and Randall were looking at their friend appalled. Nicole wanted to ask what this trans-dimensional alliance was, but she decided they have more pressing matters to handle right now.</p><p>“So…” the afro girl cleared her throat, “you’re stuck… between life and death now?”</p><p>“No”, Lilith shook her head. “I’m stuck between being a human and a demon now. It’s something different.”</p><p>“Oh.”</p><p>None of them knew what to say.</p><p>“Then I guess you’d better start looking up the ways to open the portal to the demon realm now”, stated Randall.</p><p>“And you’re not going to help?” asked Lilith, apparently offended.</p><p>“I will catch up with you later. I have some errands to run.”</p><p> </p><p>“<em>Errands </em>to run? Seriously, dude? What are you, going shopping or something?” the black-haired boy muttered under his breath critically while walking to the shed to grab a spade.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hello again!<br/>I've decided to add everything at once, since I've just finished writing this piece. So here you have the two remaining chapters :) The third part of the series coming soon!</p><p>Also, I wanted to thank Celtic_Girl_Sima for her incredible patience, advices and help with dispeling all of my doubts. You're amazing, girl! &lt;3</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Lilith was trying her best not to let her feelings show. She was tempted to touch everything in the house; the furniture, the lockers, the walls, the railing, which was smooth and shiny from hundreds of Knights’ touches… She wanted to memorise it all; she knew she would not be able to come back here ever again, not like this, and this awareness made her wanna cry. She fought back tears and followed Nicole to the living room.</p><p>“So…” her friend (or was it girlfriend? Lilith didn’t really know where this situation put them) stated, looking at her shyly, “I gathered pretty much everything I could find on demons from the reliquary, so I don’t think we need to go to the temple.”</p><p>Lilith just nodded, since having a lump in her throat made speaking difficult, and they started their research. She knew she <em>had to</em> focus, the rising fear not letting her forget what she was supposed to be doing, but all of this was just so overwhelming… Apparently, Nicole was thinking the same thing, because she spoke:</p><p>“Lilith?”</p><p>“Mmm?”</p><p>“If you could choose; if you were able to come back to being human… Would you do this?” her friend asked quietly.</p><p>Lilith looked up from the book she was pretending to read for the last few minutes. She gripped it so tightly that her knuckles went white.</p><p>“What’s the point of such questions?” she said harshly. “I’ve already told you: I don’t have a choice.”</p><p>“Well… I suppose there’s no point, you’re right…” Nicole answered sadly, backing off. But she didn’t last two minutes before she spoke again, much more firmly this time: “No, there is a point. There is a point, because I want to know if you still have human feelings. If you care about us at all. If you miss us. If you miss… me.”</p><p>“Of course I fucking miss you! I miss you, I miss the guys, I miss this house, I even miss The Fucking Order!” she burst out, her eyes watering. “I’m not heartless!”</p><p>“It’s okay, it’s okay, please, don’t get mad at me… I’m just trying to understand”, said Nicole miserably, and Lilith sighed, hiding her head in her hands. “Would you like to tell me what happened after Rogwan pulled you into the demon realm?” she heard her friend asking quietly, and she nodded in agreement.</p><p>“Well… They were surprised, but pretty happy, actually.”</p><p>“They?”</p><p>“Rogwan and the other demons. We landed in a place which resembled a royal court or something; there was a magnificent, white palace, surrounded by a huge garden, fountains and all. So, naturally, it was filled with demons. The courtiers, the servants, the subjects.”</p><p>“Wow! Seriously? I’ve been thinking…”</p><p>“…that it looks like the bowels of a volcano, lava eruptions and smoke everywhere? Yeah, I had thought so too. But it doesn’t. It looks like our world, but not quite. It’s kind of… like a dream, you know? In your dreams the locations change without any logical order; they sort of blend into one another, and when you wake up, you realise that all of it made no sense at all, but when you’re inside it, you don’t notice it. It’s probably the closest I can get to describing how it works in the demon realm. Everything is… weirdly connected. The space… doesn’t look like space on Earth. There is no linearity, everything is separate and joined at the same time.”</p><p>Nicole was gaping at her, astounded.</p><p>“Wow. That’s… amazing. But, you were saying something; you said they were… happy?”</p><p>“Ah, yes. You see, it’s not often they get an opportunity to induct a new demon, so I was quite an attraction for them. The preparations began soon enough and in the meantime I got a fancy chamber to live in. Well, to be imprisoned in, strictly speaking. I don’t know how much time had passed before they let me out and dragged me to the ceremony, but it couldn’t be more than two days or so, because I would be dead otherwise – they didn’t give me anything to eat or drink, because food or water, in the forms we know it here, on Earth, don’t exist there. And I was still entirely human back then. So I was starving and thirsty as hell, but still alive, when they brought me to a wide square. There were thousands of demons there; in every shape and form you could possibly imagine, most of them not human-like at all…  In the very centre of the courtyard a big stage was set up, and there were several tall figures standing on it. They at least resembled people, more or less. I learned later that these were the Emperor Demons – you could say that they form kind of a Council of Ministers, I suppose, but the governing system of the demon realm is really complicated. I think I still haven’t got a grip on it. Anyway, I was forced to kneel before them, and then one female-looking demon came to me, chanted some words I didn’t understand, and branded me”, said Lilith, pointing at the red tattoo on her face. “In that moment, I felt something… shift inside me. I don’t know how to describe it, but I knew that somehow I became one of them…” her voice trailed away.</p><p>“And what happened later?”</p><p>“Well, I stopped feeling hunger and thirst; demons don’t have to eat, nor drink, to survive. I was allowed to roam the plane freely; I focused mainly on exploring the libraries, though, because I didn’t stop planning my escape. After sometime I began to realise that maybe coming back to Earth is just not possible… and though I was still looking for a way out, I started to learn about the demon world and made some friends…”</p><p>“Friends?!”</p><p>“Yeah, well… You see, not all demons are bad. I mean, they’re just a different kind of beings. They were banned from visiting the earthly realm for the sins of their ancestors – you know, collective responsibility – so now when someone summons them – like we did with Zecchia – they’re just trying to take advantage of the situation as much as they can. It’s like a game – there are so many rules restricting contacts between demons and humans, that they make it a competition to find a loophole and have some fun.”</p><p>“Fun?” asked Nicole, terror and disgust painted on her face. “Like the <em>fun</em> Rogwan had, depriving people of their fears and making them hurt themselves?!”</p><p>“No, I didn’t mean that. I told you – some demons <em>are</em> bad, but not <em>all </em>of them. Most of them are just like humans – in terms of character, obviously. They’re not flawless, but they’re not evil. But the old ones, the Emperor Demons and the other ancient demons are really bad. The likes of them were the reason why the passage between the demon realm and human realm was closed in the first place.”</p><p>“Oh, so it wasn’t closed before?”</p><p>“No, not always.”</p><p>“And is there… an angel realm?” Nicole asked curiously, but Lilith shook her head.</p><p>“The demon realm <em>is</em> the angel realm. Demons and angels are basically the same thing; the same kind of beings. Actually, there once existed a neutral name for their kind, but it was forgotten centuries ago: <em>aetherian</em>. So there were some good and bad among them, and there still are, but, as I told you before – collective responsibility. A long time ago, some of the <em>aetherians</em> went really bad and it made the good ones cooperate with humans to close the passage between these two realms, to protect the people; a huge war broke out in result and the worst villains were sent to the Tartarus; unfortunately, some of the good guys also ended up there, because if you kill an <em>aetherian</em>… Well, you can’t really kill them, that’s the problem – they’re not alive in our understanding of the term; they don’t have a soul like we do, so they cannot become the energy after they’re killed…”</p><p>“The energy?” interrupted Nicole. “So… our souls don’t go to… another place, when we die?”</p><p>“Well, yes and no. Human souls are basically a form of energy; that’s why we can practise magic – practising magic is about connecting the energy inside you with the energy outside of you. So when people die, most of their energy is released and it becomes a part of a general energy field; or energy pool, if you prefer. And the matter forming their bodies goes back to the common ‘pool’ of matter. <em>Aetherians</em>, on the other hand, are not created like this; there is no matter in their ‘bodies’ to dissolve… They can’t just disappear, also – nothing can. Everything must stay in the circle of life, one way or another. So when an <em>aetherian</em> gets killed, they end up in the Tartarus and stay there forever.”</p><p>“This is… quite sad, really. And amazing, at the same time! Gosh, did you learn all that down there?”</p><p>Lilith decided to let another usage of <em>‘down there’</em> drop.</p><p>“Yep. They have awesome libraries there, I can tell you that” replied Lilith, smiling for the first time since she arrived. Nicole returned her smile, although there was still a hint of sorrow in her eyes.</p><p>Well, awesome libraries or not, she wasn’t particularly keen on going back there for eternity either.</p><p>“I’m afraid we don’t have even a medium-quality library at our disposal, since the majority of the volumes are still in Praxis’ hands, but if we want to find something in time, we’d better start looking” the other girl said finally, and they set out with the work.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Gabrielle had no idea how long had she been unconscious, but when she woke up, her skin was cold as ice. ‘Why am I so cold?’, she wondered hazily and sat up, rubbing her eyes.</p><p>She was cold, because she was completely naked. <em>Oh no. Fuck</em>!</p><p>Everything came back to her at once and it felt like someone had just hit her hard on the head. The memories flooded her mind and she couldn’t help but brace her knees and huddle herself. She began rocking back and forward, tears streaming down her face, paving their way through the dried blood on her cheeks.  </p><p>It was her fault. <em>Her fault</em>. If she hadn’t gone to that house, if she hadn’t planned to crush Lilith’s locker, none of this would have happened. Midnight would have never got a chance to possess her. And now, because of her stupid jealousy, someone was dead.</p><p>Alyssa wasn’t her friend; no, by any means. But she didn’t wish her dead! And Jack… <em>Jack must be devastated…</em> Even though she was still a little hurt that he hadn’t fall in love with her for real, she didn’t bear a grudge against him. After all, she didn’t love him either. But she liked him (though she would never admit it in her life), so it pained her to know that she was the reason why he lost the last person who he truly cared about.</p><p>She didn’t feel ready to face the world again, but she was getting really cold. And she couldn’t stand the view and the repulsive smell of blood staining her body, so she stood up, looking around warily and covering herself with her arms. There was no one here, it seemed, so she relaxed a little. She didn’t recognize this part of the forest, but she didn’t have a choice other than just start walking and hope she moves in the right direction.</p><p>After about fifteen minutes (or maybe an hour, she lost track of time), she felt a familiar scent. She breathed in and tried to figure out what was that smell… and then it hit her. <em>Randall’s perfume!</em> But Randall was nowhere to be seen, <em>so how on Earth… ‘</em>Oh, right, werewolf senses’, she realised. As if she needed any more reminders of being a werewolf… Well, that particular ability she could live with. <em>At least until you come across someone stinky, of course</em>, a mean voice in the back of her head added, spoiling her the fun, as usually.</p><p>She didn’t even have to focus hard to follow the scent; it came quite naturally to her. Soon she saw him, too. At first Gabrielle wanted to run straight to him right away, to find shelter in his embrace, but then she remembered how she looked like, and stopped herself. Instead, she sneaked closer and hid behind a tree, crushing some withered branches with her feat to catch his attention. He noticed her momentarily and rushed to offer her his jacket.</p><p>Never before had she been so grateful for a dirty, sweaty, and completely unstylish jacket.</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p>It took Gabrielle a while to realise what Randal had been doing there, but when she finally did he knew it, because her scream almost deafened him.</p><p>“What the hell did you do, idiot?!” she looked at him, utterly shocked.</p><p>“I’m glad to see you’re back to your normal self”, commented Randall ironically. “Nicole made a mistake in translating the spell. We needed a witch, not an owl.”</p><p>“And why did that witch have to be Kepler, of all people?!”</p><p>“Because I don’t like her…? And no one <em>cool </em>likes her…?” suggested Randall, but under Gabrielle’s murderous gaze he elaborated. “Honestly? We were running out of time and I had to make up my mind quickly, so I decided to at least pick up a person who deserved to die.”</p><p>“We’re going to be in <em>so </em>much trouble.”</p><p>“Yeah… And for nothing, apparently” he added, sadly.</p><p>“What do you mean, for nothing?”</p><p>“Lilith wants to go back to hell.”</p><p>“What?!”</p><p>“Yep. Actually, it’s even worse – apparently, she <em>has to</em> go back to hell, or else she’ll end up in the worst place in entire universe.”</p><p>Randall started digging again, in the meantime telling Gabrielle everything he had learned earlier this afternoon. Before they buried Kepler and headed home, the sun had already set.</p><p>They found Nicole and Lilith in the living room, surrounded by piles of books, looking through some of them frantically. They didn’t even notice their return.</p><p>“You look like you could use a break”, commented Randall, seeing Nicole’s reddened eyes. Lilith turned back to face them.</p><p>“Oh, hi. First kill, eh?” she said, eyeing Gabrielle who was still covered in dried blood.</p><p>“I don’t want to talk about this”, the younger girl blurted out. Her chin was trembling slightly and Randall only managed to notice how she clenched her teeth to prevent it, before she scurried upstairs. He sighed and looked at Lilith disapprovingly. She rolled her eyes.</p><p>“What? She’ll get over it. She just needs an après-kill drink… And speaking about drinks, where is Hamish when you need him? And Jack?”</p><p>“First of all, Midnight literally possessed Gabrielle, so it wasn’t the same as with the rest of us. Jack doesn’t pick up his phone, and Hamish is with Vera. Also, he doesn’t drink anymore.”</p><p>“What? He’s with… he doesn’t…” Lilith apparently was at loss, not knowing what she should ask about first.</p><p>“Yep. He stopped drinking after he had his little adventure with Praxis. He had been drunk when he was captured and he’s still kicking himself for that. And he’s with Vera, because obviously my shipping theory was right and… and where the hell is Jack, when he owes me 20 bucks?”</p><p>***</p><p>Lilith was a little sad that her friends had more important things to do when she had literally the last chance to spend some time with them. Even Randall, who supposedly had a crush on her, had some other ‘errands’ to run. She felt a pang of grief in her chest.</p><p>The young man apparently noticed that, because he spoke:</p><p>“Don’t worry, Lilith. I’m sure they’ll make it in time to… say goodbye”. He swallowed uncomfortably before adding in forcefully enthusiastic tone: “So, how’s the research going?”</p><p>“No luck so far”, answered Nicole, looking pretty worn out.</p><p>“Well, I’d say you should rest now, get some sleep, and try again in the morning with a fresh mind”, said Randall.</p><p>“I don’t need to sleep, but you definitely do, Nicole”, Lilith backed him up.</p><p>“I can stay a little longer…” protested the other girl, but Lilith shook her head.</p><p>“No, there’s no need. You’ve done more than enough today, thank you”, she said, standing up. She walked to the sofa where Nicole was sitting and hugged her.</p><p>“Alright, fine, maybe you’re right. I suppose I’ll be more useful once I rest a little”, Nicole gave up eventually. She was about to go, when she stopped to ask: “May I stay here?”</p><p>“Sure you can! You may crush on Hamish’s bed, since apparently he won’t be coming home tonight”, said Randall. “I’ll show you”, he offered and led her upstairs.</p><p>***</p><p>When Randal came back down to the living room, he found Lilith sitting on the sofa, holding her knees with her arms and staring blankly into the void.</p><p>He sat down next to her and for a long moment they were just sitting there, not talking and not looking at each other. Then, suddenly, he felt Lilith sneaking her slender arm under his bigger one, and resting her head on his shoulder.</p><p>“I <em>have to</em> go back there”, she spoke finally.</p><p>“I know”, he answered resignedly, feeling more miserable than he had ever felt in his entire life. “I just… I tried so hard to rescue you… and now it appears it was all in vain.”</p><p>“It wasn’t”, she opposed quietly. “If you didn’t bring me back, I would have never been able to say goodbye.”</p><p>Randall was silent for a moment, and then a question arose in his mind.</p><p>“Once you’re a full grown demon, will we be able to summon you, like we did with Zecchia?”</p><p>Lilith laughed at his ‘full grown demon’ expression, but then she went serious again and considered his question.</p><p>“I think so, yes”, she answered, a glint of hope in her eyes.</p><p>“Do you think it is acceptable to invite a demon for a coffee?” asked Randall, making her snort again.</p><p>“Why not. Though I would probably more appreciate a drink. There’s no alcohol in the demon realm, remember?”</p><p>“Oh, right… You don’t eat, you don’t drink, you don’t sleep… What the <em>hell</em> is one supposed to do in <em>hell</em> for the whole eternity?” Randall grinned at his own joke, but Lilith wasn’t smiling.</p><p>“I don’t know”, she whispered. “The prospect of spending eternity anywhere frightens me”, she added, even quieter.</p><p>Randall felt sorry for her. He felt sorry for himself, too, but the horrifying truth of her statement suddenly hit him; he would live for a few decades, and then he would die; she was the one who would be forced to live forever. How could he comfort her? How could anything he said be meaningful in such a situation?</p><p>“Well, the one thing we can do, is to make sure you won’t end up spending eternity in the Tartarus, right? Though I suppose you would rock there in no time!”</p><p>She gave him a small smile, nodding her head, and showed him which books they had already went through, so they could get on with the work.</p><p>***</p><p>They had been reading quietly for some time, the silence disrupted only by the rustle of pages being turned over, when Lilith finally asked the question she had wanted to ask as soon as he came back:</p><p>“What ‘errands’ did you have to run earlier?”</p><p>“Oh. I had to get rid of a body.”</p><p>“A body?!”</p><p>“Yeah… We had to kill a witch to rescue you. When Nicole discovered it, she wanted to sacrifice herself, but how could I let her do this? So I erased her memory and decided to kill Kepler.”</p><p>“Oh, shit.”</p><p>“Yep.”</p><p>“Well, she deserved it, though”, Lilith smirked wickedly.</p><p>“I knew you’d understand!” cheered Randall, raising up a hand for a high five. They smiled at each other.</p><p>“So, Gabrielle, huh?”</p><p>“Gabrielle, what?” Randall tensed.</p><p>“How come she’s a Knight now?”</p><p>“Well, I’m not sure yet… It happened when we were not at the den… Apparently, Midnight literally possessed her, and wanted her to kill Silverback.”</p><p>“What? Why?”</p><p>“Because in his opinion Silverback chooses lame champions, the ones that can’t deal with emotions well and therefore ruin everything.”</p><p>“Oh, right, because Midnight handles his emotions <em>so</em> well”, snorted Lilith.</p><p>“Exactly. Anyway, I think she was fighting him, because when we found her, she was unconscious, and hadn’t transformed yet. And when she woke up… Geez, you should have seen that! It was pretty hilarious, even if a little bit scary, too. She was using all these archaic words and even walking like some stud!”</p><p>“You have a thing for her, don’t you?”</p><p>The boy looked at her, suddenly nervous again, and quickly averted his gaze.</p><p>“It’s okay, Randall. I’m just not sure what is there to like in her, but if you do like her, then… I wish you all the best”, Lilith said quietly. <em>And she really meant that</em>, she realised. She watched Randall breathing out with relief.</p><p>“Well, she’s… difficult, sure. But I think that deep down, she’s a good person. You wouldn’t believe how many awesome things she did lately… She really had our backs, you know. But… I’m not sure if we’re even together, really. It’s more like being enemies with benefits”, he stated, making Lilith laugh. <em>He always knew how to make her laugh</em>, she thought fondly.</p><p>“I can definitely imagine that! And I think you’ll be a good influence on her”, she said.</p><p>Once the atmosphere between them was cleared, the comfortable silence again filling the room, they went back to work and kept leafing through the books, until Randall fell asleep in the armchair. When Lilith noticed it, she turned off the lamp and went to put a blanket over him. Then she just stood for a moment, watching his calm face lit by the moonlight. She caressed his cheek softly and quietly went outside to stare at the night sky.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>So, how did you like it? Comments are always much appraciated!</p>
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